Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Once upon a time, when I lived in Kansas, I was told about Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, a community of monks tucked away in rural Oklahoma. Some of my friends went there on a discernment trip. Other friends occasionally traveled there for weekend-long trips. The brother of one of my friends, months after graduating from high school, became a monk there.

I wanted to visit Clear Creek for years, but in the midst of life, never made the trip. A few weeks ago, while looking over the calendar, I declared that we needed to make a pilgrimage to this place. If my husband and I could drive 2 1/2 hours to visit family in Kansas, if my husband could drive several hours to a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament in Texas, and if we could plan a cross-country trip to visit my husband's family on the West Coast, then we could certainly drive three hours to visit Clear Creek Abbey! We just had to schedule it and make it happen. And about a week ago or so, my husband suggested that we visit on October 22, the Feast of St. John Paul II (quite appropriate, since JPII loved hiking outside, and we would spend time hiking at Clear Creek). So, it was that on Saturday morning at 5:10 a.m., I sprung out of bed, excited to see what the day would bring.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Hello, everyone! As you hopefully know by now, I love books. And, I really love food-eating food, reading about food, making food...you get the idea. The vast majority of books I've gotten from the library are all about food, and I enjoyed them a lot! I found some fascinating memoirs, and I also read some fantastic cookbooks. So let's talk about food!

Thursday, October 20, 2016

We bought bonito flakes.I recently was randomly inspired to expand my Japanese cooking vocabulary, so I checked cookbooks out from the library and eagerly perused the recipes. As I read recipes with udon, dashi, and rice, I realized that we would need bonito flakes.I discovered that bonito flakes are expensive, so-being a fairly frugal person-I hesitated at first. Why are they so expensive? Are they really worth it?

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The leaves are changing color, Pumpkin Spice Lattes abound in coffee shops, and fear is in the air.

I do not talk about politics often, but I've occasionally found myself reading articles or chatting about the election with other pro-life individuals. And, in the vast majority of these occasions, the articles or conversations are steeped in fear. People will express disgust at Donald Trump and talk about how they do not want to vote for him, but will then begin listing off many of the policies and actions of Hillary Clinton which are not in line with the pro-life message. As this list grows, fear builds and builds, until it crescendos in a statement: I cannot let Hillary win. I must stop her. It kills me to vote for Trump, but I can't let Clinton win...so I'll vote for Trump.

If a person broaches the topic of third party voting-because his conscience does not sit well with voting for Trump-he will be often struck down. Voting for a third party candidate is giving Hillary your vote! We can't let her win! I have seen and heard much anxiety, stress, and terror weighing on the minds and hearts of different people, and I can no longer be silent about this.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

St. Francis of Assisi is commonly thought of as an animal-loving, tree-hugging hippie of sorts. Many churches offer a "Blessing of Animals" on or around the feast of St. Francis, and quite often, "suggested activities" for the feast revolve around animals or nature.

St. Francis of Assisi birdbath, anyone?

While doing these types of activities is great, and I'm all about dancing barefoot in fields of flowers amid singing birds, these aren't the only ways to celebrate St. Francis' awesome feast day. In fact, there are plenty of other fantastic things we can do to commemorate St. Francis-that don't revolve around fluffy animals. Since I am a mega-huge fan of St. Francis, and today is his epic feast day, I'd like to share a couple ideas about how we can celebrate!